Archangel's Daughter
by COMMANDERBRICK
Summary: 25 years after the Reaper War, the turian daughter of Commander Shepard and Garrus Vakarian has secretly moved to Omega and taken up the mantle of "Archangel." Her team includes specialists of many races, including the quarian son of Tali'Zora vas Normandy. Things get complicated as she peaks the personal interest of Aria T'Loak, all while hiding her identity from her own teammates
1. Archangel

Chapter 1

We were in a tight spot, to say the least.

I was actually kind of offended that these people had the audacity to still be alive, we'd been hunting them for months, picking off their top officials until finally we thought we had them cornered, but obviously that wasn't the case.

I popped another heat sync from my sniper rifle and looked around at my team. There were 8 of us, and I was their leader. _I_ _AM their leader,_ I thought to myself, _this is far from over_.

"TAZ!" I yelled at our strategist over the gunshots and miscellaneous biotic and tech noises. "How are we doing on that escape plan!?"

The salarian smiled awkwardly at me- or maybe that's just his face.

"Can you buy me 3 minutes?"

I smiled as I put on my helmet.

"Damn right. Anulla?"

My best friend looked practically elated, and in a fraction of a second we'd both used biotic charge to get us into the fray. We'd done this so many times that when we followed up with nova a few seconds later it was perfectly in sync. There were no neo-Cerberus idiots within a 3 metre radius from each of us.

Well, no live ones anyway.

"Taz?"

"36 seconds!"

Anulla and I ran in opposite directions for the nearest cover as everyone on the above balcony rained fire on us. Suddenly we heard a massive noise and looked up- Taz's bomb had worked as planned and had blown a hole into the side of the apartment wall. Kal dropped a rope ladder from the balcony and ran through the hole first. Not because he was a great leader, but so he could overload all the cameras and tech devices ahead of the team. It's the only way to stay hidden on Omega. I saw them each head through the wall, with Shona, our krogan, bringing up the rear.

"See you soon, Archangel" she didn't even have to yell, but she did. Her booming voice practically shaking the room, "Try not to get your ass killed."

"Thanks for the concern, Shona!" came a reply from Anulla, jokingly annoyed that Shona hadn't mentioned her. I couldn't be positive from this distance away but I'm pretty sure Shona winked.

"I'll go first and cover you!" I yelled. It's not that I wanted to get out of the action before Anulla did, but honestly she had the worst aim of anyone in our team, and like Hell is Garrus Vakarian's daughter going to pass up an opportunity to go solo on high ground with a sniper rifle. I sprinted for the ladder.

Anulla was tough but I hate leaving anyone outnumbered and on their own, even if it's just for a minute. When I got to the top I could tell her barriers were down from just having used nova, and some asshole was about to stab her with his omni-blade. I shot him in the throat where the armor was weak and he went down instantly.

"Come on, Anulla!" I had to keep her focused, killing douchebags using her bare hands (and biotics) was probably her favourite pastime. "Uh right," she said, and made a run for the ladder.

The mercenaries were starting to regroup and I had to strategize with the shots I made. Would her barriers hold? Maybe I should have asked someone else to stay as backup. But no, she made it to the top and I helped her climb over the edge. I deactivated the magnets that held the ladder in place on the floor and pushed the button that made it roll up automatically.

"How long with Kal's interference work?" she asked. "Each camera or sensor they passed is disabled for 7 minutes, starting when he first hit them. I'd say we've gotta run."

We ran through the wall, then combined our biotics to pile rubble to fill the hole. To top it off I shot at it with incendiary rounds in a hasty attempt to weld it together.

"Come on!" Anulla was practically dragging me. "I wish the bad guys were ahead of us so we could just biotic charge to the end of the hallway," she said, and she wasn't wrong. I ran ahead of her, listening to Kal giving me directions on my com. Eventually we made it to a street and he sent us to the nearest bar with the most heat signatures.

Afterlife.

Getting in wasn't an issue, Kal had made sure we both had clearance under some fake names he hadn't even bothered to tell us. It was my own paranoia that had me hesitating. If Aria T'Loak saw me, and recognised me for who I really was, I was screwed. The first scenario had her just calling my parents, who would presumably commandeer some superfast Alliance ship and haul my sorry ass out of here, hopefully without killing anyone who tried to defend me. The second scenario had her using that info to blackmail me so I could avoid scenario 1. Only Kal'Zora knew who I really was, and he had similar qualms about going near Afterlife. It was a million times easier for him since he wore an enviro-suit and had a way smaller name, but it was nice to not be alone.

"I'm really sorry Ash, there's nowhere else for blocks that's this crowded. Tell Anulla to bring you to the lowest level, I'm pretty sure she comes here a lot. Are people wearing their helmets there?"

"No, Kal, it's a nightclub. We're the only ones."

There was a pause on the other end. Kal was probably consulting Jason, our stealth strategist. Then a gruff human voice came through the coms, and judging by Anulla's sudden return to reality after staring jealously at the people on the dance floor, he was on hers too.

"Split up. Take off your helmets. Anulla, stay here. Ash, go to the lowest floor and look for turians. If they're at the bar, order a drink. If they're on the dance floor, try to retain some fragment of dignity while you dance. Act like you've been to a nightclub before, and go now. Avoid eye contact with dancers and bouncers. Go!"

I scowled at the shot but moved right away, with one last nod at Anulla. Jason was right- about everything. Anulla was a natural party girl and an asari, she could blend in anywhere. I needed to get as far away from Aria T'Loak as possible, meaning the lowest floor. I also needed to find turians- even if that meant having to dance in public. It wasn't uncommon to see groups containing mixed species here, Hell just look at my team, but without my helmet I'd have a much better time blending in with my own kind.

Kind, species, whatever. The lines kind of got blurred living on Earth, probably the most diverse place in the galaxy aside from Omega right now. When the mass relays had gone down 25 years ago everyone was basically stuck where they were. The quarians regrouped and left for Rannoch the long way, but since no one knew how long it would take for the mass relays to be repaired, and no one had the resources for insanely long journeys like the quarians, they mostly stayed on Earth.

Or maybe I should be saying "we," I don't know. I'm not human, but I was born on Earth so I feel exempt of the "other" status given to the first generation of alien settlers. Who knows how many other generations there will be though, now that the relays are back. So many people made lives on Earth that I doubt they want to leave, and to be honest I don't think the humans could handle that amount of population loss.

Once the reapers were destroyed (by my own damn mother, no less) I guess they all assumed the reaper forces already on the ground would disintegrate or deactivate or something. No such luck. All the husks, banshees, brutes, harvesters, etc just began attacking randomly, which was better than them being organised, but it meant the fighting continued for a long time. Sightings of reaper forces are rare now, and are mostly dealt with by military forces that are specifically designed to seek them out. I have a few family friends in those groups, and my mother is damn proud. It's an important job- they only cause a few dozen deaths a year now (on Earth) but it was bad when they first started.

My own "real" parents (how can they be more real than the ones who've loved and cared for me for 20 years?) died when I was 3 years old. I think they were retired vets who'd settled down in one of the countries donated to the turians (somewhere near the equator, that's where the turian territories are), and had been killed by a banshee passing through the residential neighbourhood. Luckily I'd been inside with the doors locked and I guess a reaper squad came and killed it before it could come looking for me. I was adopted by Commander Shepard and Garrus Vakarian, two of the biggest names on Earth right now, and probably ever. It was a lot to live up to, and I found it hard to make my own way on Earth. The reparations of the mass relays 3 years ago had been my way out, and I hadn't wasted it.

I got to the lowest level of the nightclub. Fortunately, there were only a couple turians on the dancefloor. Unfortunately there were a few sketchy-looking guys at the bar, and I'd probably have to talk to them.

I heard Jason again, "We're checking out the exits and the area surrounding Afterlife. I'll tell you when you can get out of there. Until then, try to act like a normal person."

Man, Jason could be an asshole. Or maybe it was just his British accent, who knows. Since I grew up with humans I can actually tell when they have accents, unlike with asari or other species. I didn't recruit him for his manners though, and I proceeded to order a drink.

I got a generic low-alcohol beer that was directly imported from Palavan. One of the things I loved about Omega was the variety of food and drink that actually contained flavour. I took a sip while eyeing the guy next to me in my peripheral vision.

"Hey there," he said, "you a local? I'm on my way back to Palavan, you know a place where a guy can spend the night around here?"

 _Charming_ , I thought. "That depends. Would you rather get robbed, beaten, kidnapped, or murdered? Well getting robbed is a given but the Rolan Hotel roughs you up the least, in my experience."

His expression didn't change but I saw his mandibles move in my peripheral vision as I took another drink.

"I was kind of hoping for something… cozier." He lightly touched my arm. I was glad Anulla wasn't here for this, he'd have a broken mandible already. I was hoping to handle this verbally since the whole point of being here was to blend in with the crowds.

"Why we don't head back to my ship," I stared intently at my drink and not him, "I can't think of a single place on this station cozier than the airlock."

THAT got a more noticeable reaction, but I didn't pay attention to what he said next since there was a human yelling in my ear, "Leave. Now. This level's got an exit to the slums. Get there and Kal'll walk you to us."

I paid for my drink and left through the slums to the nearest shopping district. Eventually Anulla met up with me and we headed to home base together.

And that's when we walked right past Lieutenant Commander Steve Cortez.


	2. Helping a friend

Chapter 2

Instinctively my hand went to my face, as if my helmet might've disappeared between Afterlife and this random spare parts shop. What the Hell was he doing here? Common sense told me to keep walking, to regroup with my team, but my curiosity was burning.

 _Besides_ , I thought, _if there are ex-Normandy crewmates wandering around Omega wouldn't it be safer to know what they're doing here?_ Steve knew my face, Hell I've been going to his Christmas parties for my whole life. Mom agreed that a "real Christmas" had to have snow, so she'd dragged dad and me to the Alenko-Cortez household every year. The parties were great and I love my parents' friends, but I was glad being outside in Northern British Columbia was an experience restricted to once annually.

I signalled for Anulla to follow me into the nearest shop to where Steve was. "Kal? Can you get access to any camera looking inside Lon Orane's Shiptastic Shiporium?" "The spare parts shop on level 63? On it. Give me half a minute."

"What are we looking at" whispered Anulla, not very subtly, "that Alliance guy?"

 _At least she can tell he's Alliance_. I rolled my eyes, wishing she could sense it with my helmet on. "'That Alliance guy' is Lieutenant Commander Steve Cortez," I whispered, noticing I wasn't being much quieter than she was. Stereotypical vanguards. She shrugged and I tried to express how important he was without letting on how much detail I knew about the guy. "He served on the Normandy during the Reaper War?" She stared blankly, and I exasperatedly said "husband of the second human SPECTRE?"

"No!" she sounded genuinely distressed, "James Vega's married!?"

I couldn't help it, I laughed out loud. "The _second_ human SPECTRE, Anulla. Major Kaidan Alenko. Watch some news vids sometime."

I was pretty sure Kal'Zora had never met Steve since he grew up on the migrant fleet and on Rannoch, but he definitely knew the name and knew what it meant for me if I was seen. I knew he'd managed to get into the cameras when I heard a loud sigh through my com.

"And why, may I ask, are you still standing there?"

"Can you hear what he's saying? We need to find out what he's doing here, and who's he with. This could be just a pit stop, or he could be part of an Alliance or SPECTRE operation. If that's the case we should help them out so they leave Omega ASAP."

There was a long pause before he finally said, "if one of you can get his omni-tool signature I can track him anywhere on this station. Do that, then get back to base or I'm putting Jason back on."

Anulla and I looked at each other. We were probably the worst possible people to sneak up on a guy and scan his omni-tool in public, but what choice did we have? Anulla immediately started shaking her head, "hey you're the one who wants to follow this guy, not me." We waited for him to leave the store then started after him. It was bizarre, tailing this man who meant so much to my family, but I couldn't risk him telling either of my parents I was here.

My parents still think I'm on Aephus in University. It was hard lying to them, especially since I'm an adult who should be able to make her own decisions, but there was no way they would let me live on Omega. Dad might understand _why_ I was here, he might even be glad someone continued his good work, but knowing how it all turned out for him I can't imagine he'd approve. I've never seen mom fight- really fight, like she had in the war- but from eyewitness accounts she was more of a force of nature than a woman. I can easily picture her destroying everything in her path, then using a biotic charge to get to me, and dragging my ass home to Earth.

I've never even been to Aephus. When the relays opened, it didn't really matter to me at first. We had a lot more contact with the galactic community, but Earth kind of _was_ a galactic community. Salarians, asari, and turians all made homes on Earth after the war. The krogan had gone to Tuchanka the long way, since they weren't particularly wanted and they had a whole galaxy to repopulate. When the relays opened I finally met Urdnot Wrex. He insisted I call him "Uncle Urdnot" but I think if I'd ever said those words one or both of my parents would've smacked me upside the head.

I also met Tali'Zora vas Normandy, in person. I'd seen or spoken with her hundreds of times via holo communications, and I actually DID call her "Auntie." I'd also been long-distance friends with Kal'Zora nar Rannoch nearly his whole life. He's a couple of years younger than me, and on his pilgrimage. It would be just as devastating for him as it would be for me if Cortez reported that we were on Omega- from what I'd heard his mom was pretty badass. She was with mom and dad on the ground during the last stand on Earth, and got pretty sick when her suit got ruptured there. Dad broke his leg, he still walks with a slight limp all these years later.

My plan before the relays was to be on cleanup on Earth, hunting down rogue reaper forces, or maybe to move to a big city and be a cop. I'd grown up fascinated with my parents' lives before the war (though I never let on to them how cool I always thought they were), and I knew my dad had been in C-sec for years. I always felt like there was something more for me to do though, and when suddenly there was the option to go anywhere I wanted, there was only one place I could imagine living my life.

Omega.

It was so fascinating to me that there was one place in the galaxy that was so lawless that virtually anyone could make a difference, just by declaring a one-woman war against most of the inhabitants. There were lots of good people on Omega, especially after the war. It was starting to redeem itself in the eyes of the galaxy, being the most species-diverse place on the planet. Only former Citadel races really inhabit Earth, but Omega's got them all.

Since I became Archangel my team and I have reduced the Blues Suns, Blood Pack, Eclipse, Talon, and other smaller gang influence by crazy amounts, not to mention how many neo-Cerberus factions we've eliminated. The one we're after now is bigger than we anticipated though, so we've gotta figure out our next move as a team.

I try to think of everyone who needs me on Omega (or maybe I'm just here selfishly? No, can't think like that) as I eye Steve Cortez. He's married to a damn SPECTRE, he should be able to spot a tail. I've gotta make this quick. He leaves the store and heads towards the docks. Lucky for me, the docks are always crowded.

"Head to base, I'll catch up."

"Is this guy dangerous or something? Why is he so important?"

"I'll brief you at base." Seeing the look on Anulla's face I add, "If you can't wait that long, ask Kal."

She looked satisfied and disappeared into the crowd. I continued following Steve and trying my best not to let him see me. If he would just stand still I could walk past him and scan his omni-tool. We finally got to the docks and he ran up to (what I'm assuming was) his cruiser and started inspecting every inch of it. I couldn't blame him- damn Omega scavengers could tear a frigate apart while it was docked if they weren't being watched (or if they bribed a lookout). He wasn't preparing to leave though, maybe he was going inside? As I watched he pulled a PDA out from above one of the exhaust ports. What I wouldn't give to read what it said.

"Kal?"

"I'm here, Ash."

"Looks like someone left him a PDA in his N-33 Hammerhead, we're at the docks. I'm going to try to scan his omni now, but can you try and see what the PDA says? He's reading it now."

There was a pause, but I got the same response I always did when asking Kal to perform an impossible task: "…I'm on it."

I took a deep breath and started making my way towards Steve. Apparently the PDA made for some pretty fascinating reading because I was able to walk right up to his cruiser without him noticing. I opened my omni-tool, ready to scan, and breezed past him. I knew it had worked when Kal spoke to me again, "I've got a lock on him and can track him throughout the station. Nice job." He was immediately followed by, "Now get your ass off the streets and back home. Go to the west stairs and head through level 62."

Pushing my way through the mass of bodies around me I followed our security chief's gruff advice and got to level 62. Jason acted like an ex-cop, but had grown up on Omega. I met him on Earth where he was bragging loudly about his escapades in some bar. I asked why the Hell he left if he was such a damn hotshot and he was drunk enough to tell me that used to do security work for the Blue Suns. Until, that is, they decided to kill some mogul's innocent family to gain leverage and he ended up killing the people he'd worked so hard to keep hidden from the rest of Omega. Now he keeps us, and our home base, off practically every grid. He tells the team where to go to stay hidden, and when one of us is separated he'll get us back home without being followed.

I was back at base within 20 minutes, and it finally hit me how tired I was. We'd spent the morning staking out those Cerberus losers, then had had to fight them, and it was now late in the evening. The base consisted of one big common room, with a kitchen in one end and a big table in the other, which worked as a dining table but had holo capabilities in the centre for when we needed to regroup and strategize. When I walked in everyone looked my way, looking pleased that I wasn't dead. Kal and Jason walked with me to the kitchen.

Kal spoke first as I grabbed some leftover takeout from the refrigerator labelled, "DEXTRO." "We're tracking Cortez now, and it looks like he didn't come to Omega alone."

"We're potentially looking at a SPECTRE investigation, Ash. I know you're going to want to help but we're not exactly here legally. A SPECTRE would have every right to disband our operation here, by any means necessary."

I sad on the couch and stared longingly at the container of noodles in my hand. Of course, Kal and Jason pulled up chairs so they could face me. "Did you get the PDA? Can you read it to me while I eat?" Kal nodded and pulled up an image on his omni-tool.

 _"S,_

 _We've got info that says he'll be at the Lorrix Club tomorrow night. Please stay the Hell away from that place, and find somewhere safe until I contact you. I didn't even want you to come but I'm glad you did anyway, and not just since I'll need a getaway car. I swear this is worth me getting out of retirement for._

 _See you soon,_

 _K"_

I looked between the two of them. "Let me guess, you've got no idea who "they," if that's really Kaidan Alenko, or if he's acting alone." A smirking turian guy pulled up another chair in front of me, "Not quite."

Ayrtus, our resident information broker, briefed me as I finished off my dinner. "Kal found security footage confirming that SPECTRE Alenko is on the station, but we haven't been able to find any sign of him since he docked two days ago. He arrived with Lieut. Cmdr. Steve Cortez, Major Jennifer Lindsay, and Commander Tricia Wong, who we also have not been able to track down. We do, however, know who they're hunting.

"Dr. Horace Elding. Former assistant to Dr. Henry Lawson."

I felt my own mandibles open in surprise, "What the Hell? The Alliance did a Cerberus witch hunt right after the war, anyone affiliated to Lawson should be dead." _Except my parents' friends_ , I silently added.

"Yeah but Lawson defected from Cerberus during the war. All his crap on Horizon got practically razed to the ground, and no one thought to hunt down survivors. This Elding guy's been on the run ever since. I've got good intel that says Alliance has been aware of him for the last couple of years, but he's more dangerous than you'd think for such an old bastard. I couldn't find anything specific on why he's slipped away, except creepy references to "unnatural" and "sick" tactics."

"Is Kai-" _damn it Ash, they don't know you're on first-name basis with the second human SPECTRE!_ "Is Alenko prepared for whatever this is? I mean he's got backup but-"

"Absolutely not Ash this is a _terrible_ idea. They're the damned Alliance, for Chrissake. Let them handle this." The look on Jason's face told me he already knew where this conversation was going.

"The SPECTRE can probably take him… but we've got no way of guaranteeing the safety of nearby civilians without tipping off Elding."

"Security footage from inside Lorrix show that it's a pretty busy place, not like Afterlife but it'll still be packed." Kal pulled up the layout of the Lorrix on his omni-tool. At this point Anulla apparently found it in herself to get off of Shona's lap and wandered over, "that's gonna be a damn mess to fight in."

I eyed the crowd that now surrounded me.

"If we're going to provide backup for these guys it'll have to be carefully. We don't want the SPECTRE to get a positive ID on any of us, but I want as many of us at the club as we can manage tomorrow for when it all goes down."

I stood up and addressed the entirety of my team this time:

"Head to the strategy map guys, it's gonna be a long night."

 _ **This is my first fanfic, though I've been sitting on it for a pretty long time. I've got no idea how it'll be received so all reviews are appreciated! Let me know what you like the best, what's confusing, and how you'd like it to all play out!**_

 _ **The plot thickens! If you're enjoying the story please review, it'll encourage me to write more often! I'm trying my best to keep the chapters a consistent length, hopefully it's not too dense. Thanks for reading!**_


	3. Undercover

After hours of planning, I finally told everyone to disband. I practically stumbled back to my room, I was so exhausted.

Jason, Kal, Anulla and I all lived in small bedrooms connected to our home base. It was hard sometimes, having roommates of completely different species and personalities, but we made it work. Having our own spaces to unwind helped.

I got to my room and changed into my pajamas before climbing the ladder to my loft bed. I lay down and stared at the painting on the opposite wall. My dad painted it, after the war. Turian artwork usually leaves much to be desired in the "whimsy" department, and this painting was no exception- lots of straight lines and metallic hues, but it was a space-scape, and in the centre was a few white and grey lines surrounded by a layer of blueish purple. The Normandy. There were small lights pointed at the painting, so that even when the lights were off in my room it was illuminated. I stared at it until I fell asleep, and I dreamed of distant worlds.

The next morning, about two seconds after I opened my bedroom door, Anulla dragged me to hers.

"Ash! I desperately need your advice," she said, gesturing to three outfits laid out on her bed. "What would the super-boring girlfriend of a turian guy wear?"

I cracked a smile and turned to leave the room, "asshole," I called her as I left. The living/common/planning room was filled with silent guys on omni-tools and consoles. Ayrtus stood to one side in a stylish black and yellow suit and was looking at something on his omni-tool, occasionally bringing his right hand up to move things around on the holo-screen.

Jason also stood, and seemed to be desperately trying to get something done on his console while Hailey adjusted his dress shirt so that it fit properly. "This is a damned waste of time. Who the Hell's going to notice if my shirt's a bit wrinkled on one side?"

"It's not 'a bit wrinkled,'" came her exasperated reply, "and this is a classy establishment. If you look anything less than amazing people are going to stare." She finished with his cuffs and stood in a defensive stance, "now for God's sake go come your hair."

He shot me a glare, to which I shrugged and gestured to the bedrooms. She wasn't wrong. I thanked Hailey for dealing with Jason before moving on to Kal. He wasn't exactly thrilled with this plan, and he made it known

I didn't usually bring Jason on recon or incognito missions, since we both knew it was a better use of his skills for him to be at home, keeping an eye on us. He'd be doing that today… if I wasn't worried Kaidan might see me.

The big plan was to send three groups of two to infiltrate different parts of the club, with Taz and me lingering outside the club, and Kal staying at home. The first group was going to be Anulla and Ayrtus, who will be posing as a lower-middle class couple and will stay on the first floor of the club, while trying to get a visual on either Major Lindsay or Cmdr. Wong.

Hailey and Jason were next, posing as an upper class human couple on the upper level of the club. They too would be trying to get a visual on the women, while hovering near the VIP entrance in case Varna and Shona needed backup.

They were the third group, and were likely in the most danger. I chose them because they'd be able to hold their own in a fight. Varna was an adept and, well, Shona's a krogan. Varna's also the best actress out of all of us- she's got years of experience working as an undercover reporter. She was at home right now getting ready to play the rich batarian business woman, while Shona was out picking up what Anulla called, "formal thug wear," to play the bodyguard.

The only reason Varna agreed to join us in the first place was undercover missions like this- she wanted to be the one to break the stories of all the people we took down. Everything she wrote went through Jason and me first, obviously, and only if we were positive our identities wouldn't be revealed and that the stories wouldn't compromise our operations, then she could send them to be published.

It was a dream come true for Varna to come to Omega. She'd spent her life infiltrating corruption first-hand on her homeworld, and when the relays opened up she was here the second she could get a ticket. She'd been in the Talons accumulating insider information until we'd recruited her. Ayrtus and Kal tracked her down to a small faction in the middle of a red sand smuggling operation, and we'd cornered them. We knew we were looking for an adept, female batarian, and since the group was so small we'd only had to engage in a small firefight to figure out who we were looking for. We managed to take her hostage and threaten to kill everyone else if they didn't leave, and the cowards had no qualms about leaving her to our mercy. We explained that we knew who she was, and we said who we were, and all four of her eyes shone at the prospect of being in on our team. She joined immediately.

Taz sat next to Kal in full armor on the couch, both working together on the same omni-tool to gain full access to all of the club's security systems. We thought about using an explosion to get all the civilians out of the club- but that would likely compromise any SPECTRE operation, and we just wanted to provide backup, not commandeer the whole damn thing.

Within the hour everyone was back at base and ready to go. Even I was surprised at how well my crew cleaned up- they all looked stunning.

"Aw man I love a good heist movie," Anulla said helpfully. She stood next to Ayrtus with her weight shifted towards him, playing with her bracelets. Taz made them, and with the touch of a button they should enhance her barriers, if needed. Ayrtus stood in that oh-so-turian way, with both his feet together and his hands behind his back.

Hailey held a battle stance with her hands on her hips, adding to the overall "human goddess" look she was going for. Her tight dress was simple, bringing the attention to her shaved head and dark skin. "You couldn't 'heist' a free sample, Anulla. Just try not to kill anyone with your dancing."

Jason had finally started to look comfortable in his suit, and he stood next to Hailey. I had to admit, they looked dazzling together.

I wasn't sure what the Hell Varna was wearing- a long shirt and matching pants, embroidered with swirling patterns and a high collar, but she assured me it's what any rich batarian in the VIP section would be wearing, so I didn't question her. Shona's armor was lighter that what she usually wore, and was entirely covered in black cloth. If it was possible for a krogan to look stylish, I was pretty sure she was pulling it off.

We sent the teams out one by one with 40 minute intervals, starting with Varna and Shona, then Jason and Hailey, and then Anulla and Ayrtus. Finally it was time for Taz and me to leave.

I put a hand on Kal's shoulder, he was sitting at the console with a visual on all of our teammates, as well as Kaidan in the VIP section and his two squadmates milling about on the first and second level. Anulla and Ayrtus had no trouble blending in, and to my surprise Jason looked less paranoid than normal, and was actually dancing with Hailey. Varna seemed to be watching a game of roulette, about a metre away from Kaidan.

"Give me constant updates, Kal. The second you see Elding I want all eyes on our Alliance friends."

"Don't worry about me, Ash. Head to the café next to Lorrix, it should be quiet enough that you'll be able to hear me or gunfire, and it's usually frequented by mercs so no one will notice you."

I nodded, and as Taz and I left the base I heard Kal shout, "Good luck guys!"

On the way to the café Taz told me a long joke that I didn't fully understand, something about salarians and the blood colours of different species. I doubt it was supposed to offend me though so I laughed as we walked inside. I had my helmet on, which was great for hiding my identity but terrible for drinking coffee. As soon as I ordered I turned around and saw Steve Cortez to one side, talking on his com and looking extremely anxious.

"Kal, you see this? What's he saying?" I assumed Kal would have noticed our arrival at the café, as well as the presence of our old friend, and that he'd probably tapped into Steve's com already. "He's talking to Kaidan… who's asking him to wait longer… since he doesn't have a visual on Elding yet."

I picked seats behind Steve, and sat with my back to him so I could take off my helmet and drink my coffee. Turian coffee on Earth was expensive, but we always had it in the house. I wasn't allowed to drink it, though, and dad had always said I wouldn't like it anyway. What a damned liar.

Taz took some kind of rectangular electronic thing out of his pocket, and began opening it and moving wires around right on the café table. I just stared out the window and watched people on the street. I got the picture message on my omni-tool at the same time as I hard Kal on my com.

"We've got visual." I opened the picture, he was sending a new one every few seconds as the guy walked across the club, through the VIP entrance, and sat down in a booth with two armored human men on either side of him.

I ordered my team into position- Anulla and Ayrtus to stairs that led to the second level, Jason and Hailey to the balcony in front of the VIP entrance, and Varna to the bar closest to booth that Elding was sitting in. Shona would stay along the side of the wall with the other krogan bodyguards- she couldn't exactly move freely without attracting attention. Kal gave confirmation that everyone was in place, and stated that Kaidan's team had taken similar positions. He sent pictures periodically, and they played like a slow-motion vid. Someone would sit across from Elding, they'd speak for about a minute, his guards would hand them a small package, and then they'd leave.

This went on for a while, then finally Elding sent one of his guards to pay for his drink and for the use of the booth, then they made for the door. Kaidan was blocking it, and his two teammates had materialised behind him.

"He's asking Elding to come quietly… don't go in yet, he might have this."

I put on my helmet silently signalled for Taz to get ready to leave. We walked to the side of the Lorrix, where there were a few people gathered. We still looked out of place in our armor, but since it's Omega nobody questioned it.

Shona had silently walked closer to the confrontation, and our humans were right on the other side of the door. Varna, still sitting, was able to openly stare now that Kaidan was speaking with Elding. Lots of people were staring.

Then, things got weird. Elding's guards pulled out what looked like syringes, and plunged them into their own arms. What was this, a suicide pact? Kaidan looked panicked though, and he and Cmdr. Wong lit up with the unmistakable blueish purple of biotics. Major Lindsay lunged at Elding while Kaidan and Cmdr. Wong put the two guards in stasis. She grabbed the old man easily.

"I think they've got it covered, Archangel. It looks like they're just going to drag everyone out of there alive. Jason's going to be pissed you made him buy a suit for this."

Obviously I was relieved that it had been quick and painless, but I did feel like an idiot for dragging my entire team into this. All for nothing. Of course the SPECTRE had this under control, it was stupid of me to think he didn't.

And then, of course, everything went to shit.

"Ash! Ashley! Are you seeing these pictures? What the Hell are those?"

The two bodyguards shook off the stasis like it was nothing, then they bulked up to about three times their size, their skin turning bulbous and black and blue. Not reapers, but he had found a way to make something like them, killing the two men who'd been his employees. _Time for Archangel to take this guy down_ , and some part of me, deep down, had to resist a smile.


	4. Adjucants Attack

Chapter 4

"Hailey! Cut the music!" I shouted through my earpiece. Taz and I charged through the front doors and I nodded to him, and he pulled out a small grey cylinder and twisted it. The sound was louder than any gunshot. Simultaneously, Hailey had thrown the DJ out of his seat and overloaded the sound system. Jason was shouting and herding people down to the first floor.

"Taz, hand these out," I said, handing him a bag of M-36 Suppressor pistols, "Ayrtus and Jason, get everyone out of here. Anulla, open those damn doors."

Anulla and I ran up the stairs, and I handed Hailey her N-26 Widow. It was hard to hear among the chaos, but Shona's voice suddenly boomed through all our coms, "Adjucants! They're adjucants! They need backup ASAP."

I didn't know what the Hell she was talking about, but I for the first time I saw Jason freeze.

"Kal! What's going on in there?" We were still clearing civilians, I saw Hailey go up to Jason, I think she was saying, "just shake it off, we've got a job to do."

"They're… the monster- reaper things… they overpowered Kaidan and Wong. Lindsay's trying to restrain Elding but keelah... one of them attacked a krogan and he's turning into one of them. Shona's trying to help and Varna's steering the civilians to the exits."

"Let's get in there." Anulla and I stood in front of the door, with Hailey, Jason, Taz, and Ayrtus behind us in a triangular formation. Totally in sync, we smashed through the door.

"You're looking at 4… 5 hostiles now. Be careful Archangel." It was one of those times when Kal was referring to the entire group as Archangel, not just me. "Varna and Shona are both helping now, they've taken down two together. It looks like Lindsay wants to help fight but Kaidan keeps ordering her to keep Elding pinned."

We burst in. Cmdr. Wong gaped at us for about half a second, before remembering what she was fighting and getting back to it. I had to admit, we were quite the sight. For one thing, we were a good-sized, well-armed, mixed-race group running towards the danger instead of away from it. I was in head to toe purple armor, and Taz was covered in wires and other engineer crap, but Anulla was in the shortest dress I'd ever seen and she looked ready to kick some ass. Ayrtus and Jason were in classy suits that did not look battle ready, and Hailey was practically an Amazon.

Right away, Taz threw some crazy kind of grenade between two adjucants, and Kaidan, Cmdr. Wong, and Varna created a barrier to keep the blast contained. When they took it down Shona finished them off with brute force. Ayrtus ran to Major Lindsay, and used some kind of handcuffs on Elding. That meant she was back in the fight. She stood with Jason and Ayrtus, and the three of them just rained bullets into the fray. Hailey and Taz hung back, with her picking people off and him overloading barriers and exploding the occasional adjucant. There were way more than five at this point, and I tried not to think of the civilians these used to be as I pounded their brains into the floor. Anulla and I did what we always did, charge, nova, melee, repeat. Kaidan, Cmdr. Wong, and Varna kept everyone's barriers up.

We were amazing. We worked together flawlessly, more like a force of nature than 11 individual people. Jason, my second-in-command, dealt out orders since I was usually elbow-deep in adjucant. We were completely in sync, I moved from target to target with complete faith in everyone there, then suddenly… there wasn't another target.

Kaidan stood up, out of breath, adjucant blood all over his face and soaking his thinning silver hair. He stood next to Jason, who was loosening the top buttons of his shirt. Kaidan looked at him and held out is hand. Jason stared for a second, then shook it.

"Nice work, but we would have had this. I'm not going to bring you in for interfering with a SPECTRE operation if you tell me who you are."

Jason hesitated, but only enough that it seemed like he was considering the trade. It suddenly hit me that Kaidan had only seen Jason giving orders, and assumed he was the leader. I wanted to step up… but couldn't risk him recognising my voice. Jason gave me a slightly worried side-eye before saying his next words.

"Archangel. I'm Archangel. And you're not really in a position to be making deals here, your lot would be dead if it weren't for my team."

His self-righteous nature getting the better of him, Kaidan stood tall and looked Jason in the eye. He pointed right at Jason's chest and said, "Archangel. Right. You think I'm impressed? If you're anything like the real Archangel this team won't last a month."

I tensed, and felt my biotics start to build in my fists. Nothing visible, but Major Lindsay seemed to notice the change in body language and was watching me. "Ashley. Ashley calm down, he's a SPECTRE and your friend."

Kal was right, of course, I tried to relax. "I think a little 'thank you' might be in order. You and Commander Wong against God knows how many adjucants?"

"There will be more." Elding's voice startled all of us. We turned to look at him.

"I've been selling that serum for days now. I have it on good authority that if I don't check in with my associates within 48 hours, it will be used on some of the more… disposable citizens of Omega."

Kaidan stepped over and knocked him out. "Wong. Lindsay. We're leaving."

Lindsay slung the old man over his shoulders in a fireman's carry. I stood there, wide-eyed, but Jason started speaking before I could.

"What if he's not bluffing? Are you fucking serious? You SPECTRE piece of shit."

Kaidan took a swing at him, which Jason dodged. Cmdr. Wong and Varna created a barrier between the two. It was the first time I'd heard Kaidan yell.

"This man is a threat to the entire galaxy! If I could save every civilian, I would, but I'm willing to make sacrifices if it keeps other planets safe."

"The entire population of Omega is at risk if you leave with that man. We can monitor him, find out his contacts, kill them before this gets ugly."

"And what if he slips your surveillance? I'm not about to take your words on good faith. I'm leaving with Elding, and if any one of you follows me, I'll shoot you. I'm not about to jeopardise galactic peace by placing my faith in some freaking rag-tag group of misfits."

"Admiral Hackett did." The words were out before I could stop myself, "he placed his faith in Commander Shepard, who placed her faith in you. And you let her down, again, and again."

He looked at me indignantly, his mouth open, and it looked like he was going to attempt a comeback, but instead he just said, "We're going. Don't follow us, Archangel."

The four of them left the building as we silently stared, "Steve's out front with a shuttle, looks like they're headed off-world immediately." Kal sounded as shocked as I felt. I knew SPECTREs were above the law, and the whole point of that was to accomplish their goals by any means necessary, but I could barely believe Kaidan took so many potential civilian casualties in stride. Was my mom like that, before she retired?

I realised everyone was waiting on me for orders. I took off my helmet. "Jason and Ayrtus, head back to base. Work with Kal and go through that security footage. We had 48 hours to find and eliminate everyone he spoke with tonight." I looked around at my team, most of whom were in dishevelled formal wear. I was so proud of them. "Go home, clean yourselves up, and rest. I'll be in touch when it's time to make the hits. We did good, guys. Alenko wouldn't say it but they would have been screwed if it weren't for us. You were all amazing."

I let Ayrtus stop as his place to change before meeting Anulla, Jason, and me at home base. We all cleaned up, and the guys got to work. Kal would bring up the picture, Ayrtus would get a positive ID, and Jason would track down where the person was right now. Two hours later, we'd identified a human named Stephen Ling, a batarian named Rond Cal-tchek, and another human named Hamda Rechter. I called Hailey, Taz, and Shona, and by the end of the day all three people were dead. My people searched and found several syringes and vials of the mystery liquid to bring back here. Only one contact remained, a male turian with green facial markings. My guys were getting frustrated, and we were running out of time.

"The markings on his face don't correspond to any known colony, past or present," Ayrtus grumbled. "It's like he just thought they looked cool. Who the Hell does that?"

That part was strange, I'd never heard of a turian who got facial markings for aesthetic purposes. My own were blue, and the pattern is specific to turians born on Earth.

"I've found 13 guys who could be him, if he changed his entire armor set and is now wearing a helmet." Jason sounded equally frustrated.

Kal addressed Jason, "I'm trying to isolate his voice from the din of the club, but even if it is audible there's no guarantee we'll be able to match it to one of your candidates."

That was when the entire console cut out. Was that even possible? This computer was Kal's baby, and the entire display was black. We all had the same thought at the same time- we're being sabotaged. Anulla was at the entrance to our base in a flash, in case whoever did this was on their way here. I walked over and stood with the guys. It was so strange… the screen was pitch black, but it almost looked like there were shadows. It didn't look like a wiped display, it looked like…

"That's a room." Kal voiced my thoughts, "Someone is watching us, someone in a black room."

"Very astute."

A smooth female voice came from the console, Anulla flinched by the door. Then the unmistakeable Aria T'Loak stood in the frame.

"Don't be alarmed, I haven't done anything to your console… yet."

Her words, slow and deliberate, had us all in rapt attention. Had she tracked our base, or just our console? Did she know where we were right now, and that we lived here, or just that we were receiving her footage from somewhere on the station?

"I need to speak with Archangel."

Jason moved to the centre of our group, right in front of the camera. "You're looking at him," he said, in his toughest voice. "What do you need, Aria?"

"Don't play games with me, Jason Bailey. Your SPECTRE friend may have fallen for that, but I know better." She didn't look angry, but something about her made me think she never looked totally pleased, either. She looked past Jason, at me. "Now you, you have the qualities of a leader. Your team took down 18 adjucants inside of 15 minutes, and then you orchestrated the assassinations of three of Elding's clients."

I then realised that she must have seen the security tapes from the Lorrix, it was the only way she could know this much. She also probably had people who tracked down Elding's clients… and found them dead.

"But." She paused, still looking at me, and I got the feeling that she lived for these monologues. "Where is the fourth?"

I stood in the centre of our group and looked straight at the camera. I made my tone dangerous and gravelly, just like my mom did when she was furious. I hoped I sounded scary. "We don't know. What is it that you want?"

"The same thing as you, Archangel- to keep my station free of adjucants. I've been watching you and your group for a while now. You seem quite capable."

"So, what, you're asking us to deal with it? You're trying to hire us? What's your game, Aria?"

Her eyes seemed to bore into my skull, those huge eyes that belonged to both asari and humans. If I wasn't mistaken, they glinted before she spoke again.

"No game. I've simply got a proposition for you."

She paused again, and I found myself holding my breath as she spoke her next words.

"I'm proposing a partnership. If you're interested, come to Afterlife, alone."

She stepped out of frame, and the console went back to normal.


	5. A new ally?

Honestly, this was more exacerbating than anything else.

Somehow, after all these months, Aria T'Loak had found us. Or had she? It was possible that that signal had been designed to reach random com terminals, to scare us into thinking she'd found us, or maybe she honestly just wanted our help.

Even I've been following the only rule on Omega, "Don't Fuck With Aria," so there's no reason to think that she's trying to hunt us down to take us out. All these thoughts raced through my mind within about two seconds, right before I noticed the anxious and expectant eyes of my teammates all around me.

I put my hand on my forehead and exhaled the words, "find that damn signal, and tell me she doesn't know where we are," to Kal, who was typing before I even spoke the words. I could tell he was freaking out, I don't think anyone's gotten past one of his firewalls before (except maybe his mother). I wanted to talk him down, but we had more pressing issues right now.

"You're not…" Ayrtus looked straight at me. "Going alone? Hell no. She's gonna have backup, so will I."

"Yeah except that's her turf, Ash. If we all go in there they'll just gun us down." If Anulla had eyebrows you can bet one of them would be raised right now.

"She's right." Jason sunk into a chair, pressing both hands to his face. Kal was still typing frantically.

Ayrtus took a step towards Jason, "if she goes in there alone, how are we going to know if something happens to her?"

Jason sunk deeper into the chair. "Also true. But what's to stop Aria from just murdering the backup?"

"We can't exactly go in undercover, she's seen all of our faces." Anulla said, rubbing her temples.

Ayrtus, Jason, and I all had the same thought at the same time. Our eyes drifted towards Kal, who seemed oblivious to our conversation.

"No," I said immediately. "It's more important that he stays and finds out if our location is compromised."

A muffled groan was the response from Jason, who was practically on the floor at this point.

"Guys. Is there any chance we can track that turian guy on our own."

Kal actually did turn to look at me this time, and I saw three heads shake simultaneously. I rolled my eyes and turned away. _Think, Ashley. What would mom do?_

"I'm going. Anulla and Ayrtus, if you're not afraid of getting killed by batarian bodyguard dirtbags, will you come with me?"

"Duh," and "of course," were the answers.

"Full armor, no helmets, we all go together. She's trying to play some stupid game, and we don't have the time for it. Jason, can you tap into Afterlife's cameras? Is she there right now?"

Jason sat up and lit up a screen on his omni-tool. I got a glass of water and a snack, and Anulla changed into her armor. When Kal spoke it startled all of us.

"They don't know where we are."

"What?" always-paranoid Jason looked up in disbelief.

"I've managed to isolate the signal. It's like… they were able to access our console and a mic, but I've- I mean we've managed to encrypt the data too well. They didn't get a solid fix on our location."

Ayrtus eagerly rushed to his side to examine the now-functioning console. "How the Hell did you manage that?" he said, eyes wide.

"It's a piece of scattering software, designed by my… mentor." I grinned at that, he meant his mother. Aunt Tali had raised him since he was a baby, and unlike most of the other quarians of his generations, he learned tech skills. He was one of about 500 quarians genetically engineered to have high diversity and strong immune systems, bred for life on Rannoch. Most kids of his generation are still there, learning to farm or build infrastructure, but Kal had always wanted to go on a pilgrimage so he could serve on a star ship. Tali had taught him all she knew about hacking and programming and whatever it is she did, and I wasn't surprised to hear that her tech had made it into our home base.

"We're still connected to the Extranet so other consoles can see that we exists, but if they try to pinpoint where we are then the possible locations are randomised within a set distance, depending on how powerful the console is. For us, I set a distance of about three kilometres cubed."

"But won't we show up at the centre of that cube?"

"No. The possible points are random, like three-dimensional scribbles. Any time they look for us we show up at another point. We're actually nowhere near the centre of it, and it's not a perfect cube anyway. More like a cloud of random spots encircling Omega."

Ayrtus looked more impressed than I'd ever seen him, it was nice seeing Kal be the centre of attention for a change. Just when it looked like the Q&A was about to start up again, Jason found what we were looking for. A live feed of Afterlife, and Aria was there right now.

"Let's move, people."

We entered Afterlife at the main entrance this time, all of us in armor, without helmets, and only carrying pistols. I walked in the lead, and tried to compose myself. My thoughts were scattered, from my need to make an intimidating impression on Aria to trying not to laugh when Anulla called us the "triple A's." Walking through Afterlife and to the back stairs gave me a strange sense of nostalgia. I hadn't been here myself, but these exact steps were taken by my mother before I was even born, before she and dad were even dating. Actually, this is where she'd come to find out how to find him. She hadn't known she was looking for Garrus Vakarian at the time, but was asking about Archangel.

I tried to swallow my fear of being found out by Aria. She'd met my mother, surely she'd notice the similarities in how we walk, how we talk, and (I liked to think) how we led our teams. The fact that I was a completely different species helped- it probably wouldn't occur to Aria that I was my mother's daughter. It also worked in my favour that Aria had never met my dad. After my mom "pulled his ass out of the fire," (as she tells it) he never stepped foot on Omega again, so I doubt Aria knew him well enough to notice our similar personality traits. I had nothing to worry about.

We walked up the curved steps that led to a small platform. From it, a few more steps led to a much larger platform with a huge purple couch on it. As I stepped halfway up the smaller one, two batarians appeared next to my friends, and two more stood directly in front of me.

"Aria. You wanted to talk? Let's talk." At least, I assumed she was there. I couldn't see through the two idiots on the steps in front of me. One was scanning me with his omni-tool and the other was just there to keep me from going up the steps.

"Hm. I thought I told you to come alone."

The batarians parted and I saw the Pirate Queen of Omega in person for the first time. She looked just like the vids, she was even wearing the same short white jacket and gloves as she always did in them, but I wasn't prepared for how much… presence she carried with her. She wasn't big, just an average-sized asari, but she seemed to make everyone else in the rom smaller. The way she walked towards me and spoke was so purposeful, everything she did was just so deliberate. I wondered if she was always like that or if she was trying to make a kind on first impression on us- on me.

I took pride in the fact that my mandibles didn't even move when I spoke, I wanted to seem as confident as I'd felt when I first walked in here.

"Would you have?" I crossed my arms and leaned back slightly- something my mom always did when she was being nonchalant and confident (so almost all the time).

She was standing directly in front of me at the top of the steps, so I was actually looking up at her. I had the feeling she was sizing up, but her eyes remained locked with mine. A small smile crossed her face.

"No. I wouldn't have. To be perfectly honest I wasn't sure if you'd listen." She turned and walked towards the couch and sat down, "but I'm afraid that this isn't going to do."

I walked to the couch and stood in front of her. "Look, you called _us_ , asking for _our_ help, not the other way around. If you don't need us-"

"I called Archangel. I need her help." She somehow managed to sound dismissive and firm at the same time. I laughed lightly.

"Look I don't know what you've heard but I am nothing without my people."

"For recon and erasing your tracks maybe, but out there, fighting… you don't need any of them, do you?"

It was like she was looking into my soul. I didn't know how to respond to that- I definitely was part of the reason we always got out alive, and my kill count was probably the highest in the group, but that was just by virtue of the fact that I was around the most. The rest of my team… they've got jobs, relationships, hobbies. Aside from keeping in touch with my parents via the extranet, they were my only real friends. Even those who lived at base with me have other things to occupy their time- Anulla was dating Shona and was a total party girl, Taz and Kal were always doing weird tech stuff, and Jason… okay maybe Jason didn't have any hobbies. So it wasn't just me, but I was in the field for every major operation we did, unlike Jason.

Instead of acknowledging her comment I decided to get to the task at hand. "Why do you need me?"

She gestured for me to sit, and I hesitated briefly before sitting just a little bit farther away than she had indicated. A cylinder rose from the ground where I had been standing, and she activated a console which appeared above it. On the screen was live footage of the turian we were looking for.

"We've found your man," she said triumphantly, "he's on level 12 in a patio area, but no one has entered ten metre radius of him for at least two hours. Look:" the screen split into a checkerboard, each of the twelve squares showing a different person facing pointedly away from the patio. "We've been monitoring those people, and they seem to work him, or for Elding, or whomever. They've turned away several pedestrians attempting to get onto the patio."

"So we can't sneak up on him," I said as it dawned on me. "They're waiting for us to try, and if we do he'll turn himself or one of his bodyguards into one of those aducators or whatever."

"Adjucants." Her correction was brisk and cold, though I think the tone had more to do with the creatures than with me. Jason had given me the run-down; Cerberus occupied Omega during the Reaper War, tried to recreate Reaper forces, ended up with Adjucants. He said Aria had made it seem like she'd played a big part in getting rid of them, though he was pretty sure she'd just stepped in to take the credit once it was resolved.

He'd also said my mom might've been there, but he couldn't remember since he was like six and Aria had worked hard to keep the attention on herself. I hadn't had time to try and find records of my mother's involvement but I was going to look into it as soon as possible. Normally I'd ask Kal to do that sort of thing… but when it came to my parents I generally did the digging myself. What I found wasn't always pretty, and though they were my biggest inspirations in everything I did and I loved them dearly, it was often a fight to justify their actions. It was hard, trying to put myself in their positions and following the trains of thought and circumstance that led to them doing what they did, and I had no energy or desire to spell out those thought processes to Kal or to anyone else. If he was really curious he'd look up their records himself.

"They're called adjucants, and they're a bitch to kill." Aria had composed herself and was finally explaining what she wanted, "and all those people are at risk if we don't stop them at the source."

Something about the way she said "we" and looked at me made me think she wasn't talking about her people anymore, or mine for that matter. _She_ wanted to work with _me_.

"So we can't do the stealth thing, and you clearly don't think numbers are the way to go. Why?"

"Be _cause_ if we overwhelm them with an army then he'll simply turn himself in the confusion. What we need is for someone to go in and out as fast as possible. We need to send a vanguard."

And here I thought she'd called me because I was special. That's it? She just wanted a vanguard to smash in, kill the guy, then drag him out? There had to be more.

"So you hacked into one of the most secure consoles in the Terminus Systems, scaring the shit out of my tech guys by the way, to ask Archangel, _Archangel_ , to do a little housecleaning for you? You don't know any other vanguards? Don't bullshit me, Aria. Why am I here?"

She looked at me, then a smile spread across her face and she tilted her head back and started to laugh. Astonishingly, I think I'd caught her off guard. The laughter was the first thing she'd done since we met that didn't sound calculated and scripted. It made her seem more like a real person, and less like the figurehead she worked to be.

"Alright, Archangel. The truth." Her face grew serious again, and hatred flashed in her eyes when she spoke about the adjucants.

"The only recorded instance of adjucants going being deployed was over 20 years ago during the Cerberus occupation. The only reason that there's a single living person left on Omega is because I fought personally with two of the most powerful women I've ever met." My mom and… who could she be talking about? Tali? Liara? "We eradicated the adjucants, but I'm not vain enough to think that I did most of the work." _Now there's a surprise_ , I thought. From what I'd heard Aria thought the entire galaxy revolved around her- I doubted she had the capacity to be humble.

"I've been watching you for a while now-." I wish she'd elaborate and let on how long she thought I'd been here for, but then I realised that that was deliberate. She didn't want me to know what she knew, in case I'd been here longer than she thought; she didn't want to risk me believing I'd outsmarted her. I chose to believe that anyway. "-and you're the first person I've met in a long time to even come _close_ to matching their talents.

If she _was_ talking about my mother than that was an enormous compliment. The Vakarian in me was flattered, but the Shepard women have always been formidable, and we took praise like that in our stride. A slight movement of my mandibles betrayed me though, and her eyes glinted in response. She knew I was going to help, the ego-stroking was just to make the process more amicable. She wanted to know she could use me again in the future.

"Why can't you just have him sniped?"

She reached over and touched the console, which now displayed various rooftops, hallways, and balconies. A couple had people walking back and forth and looking in far-off directions- presumably to other rooftops and balconies.

"That's why. They're watching every roof, balcony, and window in a fifty metre radius. And the streets around the patio are too winding and crowded to get a clear shot." The pacing of her voice had started to pick up, and I could guess she was starting to get impatient. I was too- my instincts always wanted me to take action- but my parents had taught me that gathering all the information I could before undertaking any task would save my life. As it was, I think Aria had told me enough to work with, and we were racing against the clock.

"Anulla's coming with us. She's a vanguard, she's as good a fighter as I am, and frankly I've got no reason to trust you."

Aria frowned then said loftily, "As good a fighter, yes, but she doesn't have your… knack for assessing situations and taking control. She can't improvise like we can, and besides," she looked right into my eyes, "I have every confidence you'll succeed. We won't be needing her."

I leaned back and crossed my arms again. "I want her and my batarian friend," I didn't know if she knew Varna's name, and I wasn't about to enlighten her if she did. "If nothing else they can create barriers around the area if everything goes sideways."

She considered, then spoke as if she were coming up with an entirely new idea, "I'll have a team of asari commandos create a barrier around the entire patio as soon as you, Anulla, and I reach the turian. No one else of your team comes, I don't know them and I don't trust them. We leave now."

We stood up at the same time, and she smiled. She suddenly didn't seem so larger-than-life, I knew so many strong, angry women that I guess I could add her to the list. Her smile almost seemed… friendly, and we shook hands. Her hand was warm and soft in mine.

"I look forward to working with you, Archangel."

"Let's do this thing."

 ** _I'm currently working on a tie-in fanfic called "After," which starts out during the end of Mass Effect 3, and which will extend past the end and explain what happened to many different races and characters after the series ends. While_** **Archangel's Daughter** ** _is a continuing series, following the adventures of Ashley Shepard Vakarian and her friends,_** **After** ** _will only be a few chapters long, and essentially will act as a prequel to_** **Archangel's Daughter** ** _._**

 ** _Don't worry! I'm not taking a break from Ash to write this new series, I'll be working on them both at the same time. I'll add a link here when the first chapter is up._**


	6. Why you're really here

Chapter 6

I walked forward quickly so I could get to my team before Aria could hear. I had to talk to Ayrtus before we moved forward with the plan. I stood close between them and tried not to look tense- except I wasn't the best actress and "looking tense" was a Vakarian trademark. I looked at Ayrtus specifically and spoke quickly, hoping Aria didn't notice I was giving different instructions than what we'd discussed.

"Get back to base, make extra sure you don't have a tail. Get Kal and Jason to stop whatever they're doing. If she finds out where we are we're _done_." He looked like he was going to object to being sent home so I spoke with more urgency, "send Kaz and Hailey to Level 12, key word is _discreet_."

I looked sideways and saw Aria on her way down the stairs, _damn!_ With no time to totally brief Ayrtus, I finished with a few vague words. I hated sending my team in blind. "They're my backup. Have them watch me in case this thing goes sideways." "Ash-"he started to protest, but I gave him a sharp look that said _Aria's too close!_

With a curt nod and his instructions, he turned and left. His dedication and willingness to follow anything resembling orders were a testament to a uniquely Palavan-based upbringing. It was something those of my generation were supposed to aspire, but with so many other species living on Earth, and everyone scrambling to recreate institutionalized education after the war, I don't think any of us could be candidates for what used to be the "ideal turian."

It didn't help that my mother was a human, and that my own dad had never followed an order he didn't agree with. They'd never wanted me in the military anyway, so it wasn't that important that I blindly followed orders. That didn't mean I was completely insolent and didn't recognise authority- far from it. I'd like to see anybody spend five minutes with Commander Shepard and ignore the leadership and confidence she radiates, but even she used to take orders. Part of taking command was recognising when others were more suited for the task, and I listened to my teammates every time I was unsure about how to proceed.

Aria came and stood with me and Anulla, and I talked Anulla through the strategy. Despite her flippant attitude, I think she was genuinely impressed by Aria T'Loak, and trying to make it clear that she answered to me. I appreciated it.

"Yes, well. We've wasted enough time already. Come." Aria walked towards the wall between the two staircases that led to the platform with her couch. She activated her omni-tool and a holographic panel came up. "You two are hardly dressed for the show," she said, and Anulla and I exchanged puzzled looks. A part of the wall slid open, and we stepped onto a platform. Aria shook her head as her body guard stepped forward to join us. "No need," she said as the wall slid shut, "I've got this."

The platform started to rise. Great. On an elevator with Aria T'Loak who's "got this." If any of my _Normandy_ family were here right now they'd hit me over the head for being so stupid.

"So," Aria said, leaning on the railing and looking over in my direction as the platform continued to rise. "'Ash,' right? Not a common name for a turian. You from Taetrus?"

The platform stopped and we stepped through the door into a hallway. There were two doors on the left, one on the right, and one at the very end. Aria led us through the hall then stopped to do a retina scan at the door on the right.

I couldn't help myself, I scoffed. "Taetrus? Hardly." I didn't bother elaborating. She shot me a curious look and said mysteriously, "no… no of course not," and the door opened.

I gasped. Anulla's eyes grew wide and shiny, and her open mouth formed a slight smile. The room was huge and round, with smooth white flooring that seemed to grow into the walls. As the walls extended upward, they faded to silver in a gradient, and there were wide, cylindrical pillars throughout the room with the same décor, though you could barely see because of what was _on_ the walls. There were large drawers visible, and counters extending from some parts of the wall were also black. Large, black, felt squares appeared in places along the walls and pillars. The back wall was a floor-to-ceiling mirror.

Then came the stars of the show: weapons. We were in Aria T'Loak's personal armory. Any gun I could possibly want was on these black squares, or in these drawers. They were all arranged by type, and I floated like in a dream to the pillar covered in sniper rifles. Widows, Indras, Vipers… even a vintage Geth Javelin. _My dad carried one of these during the war…_

Aria standing about a foot away from me with her arms crossed and a smug look shook me from my daze. "Are you just going to stand there with your mandible on the floor are we going after this guy?"

I composed myself, as best I could, and looked over to where Anulla was standing in front of the mirror trying to choose a submachine gun that went with her armor. Classic.

"I brought you here so you could properly arm yourselves. By my clock we've got five minutes before we have to head out. So ladies…" she gestured around the room, "enjoy your shopping."

Anulla and I grinned at each other, and I slung the Javelin over my shoulder before migrating to the assault rifles. If working with an alleged villainess meant we had access to all these beauties, it might not be so bad. We had a weapons rack and table back at base, and an armory in the basement of my parents' house on Earth, but it was mostly nostalgic and I wasn't allowed to touch most of the stuff. There was a passcode on the door that I was never able to crack (though believe me, I tried), and they only ever let me stand outside while dad grabbed my guns when he took me shooting.

I grabbed the newest Phaeston model and saw Aria clipping a grenade belt around her hips. I watched her as she clipped a shotgun to her back as well. I secretly wondered if I could take home the Javelin, or come back here if we needed to.

"A vanguard who carries a sniper rifle… you're full of surprises, Ash."

She was trying to piece together as much information as she could about me, so she could…what? Figure out my identity? Decide if I could be trusted? I refused to give her the satisfaction of an answer so I looked away and focused on finding lightweight materials for my rifles.

When the five minutes were up, Aria received word that her five commandos were in place. When we reached level 12 they would form a perimeter around our guy. Aria led us to the door at the end of the hall and opened it up.

"Hey Ash," Anulla stage-whispered in my direction. "Check it oooout!" She held a submachine gun in each hand, one hot pink to match the accents on her armor and the other was black but seemed to be covered in blinking lights, for some reason. She did a weird dance while Aria was distracted with the door.

I suppressed a laugh (mostly unsuccessfully), and was once again impressed when the door opened onto a balcony. This was the most populated level on Omega, and the one that most resembled a city. Afterlife was the tallest building on Omega, and we had to be on one of the top floors. The view was breathtaking. Everyone in the rest of the galaxy saw Omega as this shithole… but I loved it. It's the last place you can go to really be free. Earth was the centre of galactic civilisation, but it's all so young! I could have stayed here all night, but we went straight for the skycar in the centre of the patio. With me in the passenger seat and Anulla in the back, we took off.

I wondered if this was what Aria saw, why she had this view set up. It seemed to me that everything she did was an illusion- the bar, her attitude, and how she was treating us, like we were guests. Seeing the skyline like this made me wonder… did she run Omega for the power rush or did she genuinely love it, like I did?

"So, what? We're just going to park in the middle of the street? I didn't see any skycar parking near our target." I asked while sending a message to Ayrtus via omni-tool: _on our way_.

She smiled and said, "We're going to park on level 11, then we're taking a service ladder to a tunnel, to a nearby alley. Don't worry, _Ash_ , it's all planned out. Are you always so on edge?"

She said my name deliberately, like she didn't believe it. She was still trying to figure out where I was from. Well, no more of _that_.

"Look, Aria, I know you're trying to figure me out so you can file away the info and blackmail me later, but if you really want to see who I am maybe we can stop with the interview."

A bigger smile. "Of course, Archangel. I guess the answer would be 'yes,' then…"

I heard Anulla laugh in the backseat.

When we got to level 11, we found where we parked to be completely clear of civilians, with a few armed mercenaries waiting for us. Aria sauntered over and spoke with some batarian wearing a visor, then waved us over. He led us to a skycar and got in the driver's seat, Aria got in the front and Anulla and I got in the back. We took off and drove straight… up?

"See those catwalks?" Aria was turning to face us and pointing up through the sunroof. Who needs a sunroof on Omega? "That's our stop."

I looked up at the ceiling, which was easily 30 metres off the ground. The top was a series of pipes and tubes and catwalks and… a ladder, just like Aria said. The ladder led to a hatch in the ceiling.

The car brought us a bit higher than the catwalk and we all jumped onto it, then walked to the base of the ladder. Aria got there first, then turned around to look at me.

"Archangel. You want to know why you're really here? I need you."

I laughed and crossed my arms, "you're going to need to be a bit more specific than that."

"I don't go in the 'field' very often. Usually I can trust my people to take care of anything I need them to. But this-" a troubled look crossed her face, then disappeared just as quickly. Was she really afraid? "-I can't afford to take any chances with this. If even a single adjucant gets loose the entire population of Omega is at risk."

I didn't bother hiding my surprise. I knew it was serious but… holy crap. Not only did I not grasp the scale of the threat, but I had no idea Aria actually gave a shit about the population of this station.

"Up there, you're in charge. I'm under no illusions that I could have stopped the adjucants last time without Shepard and Kandros, so I need you to do what you do best. I need you to lead."

I stood there for a few seconds, the movement of my mandibles an easy clue that I was totally shocked. Not only was Aria putting me on the same level as my mother, but she was putting me above herself. I thought Aria thought the universe revolved around her, but here she was, admitting that I could save the station and she could not. Well, in theory anyway. If everything went according to plan I would meet her expectations and surprise myself.

Through the hatch was more ladder, followed by some unlit tunnels (nothing a little biotics couldn't fix), and a trap door on the ceiling. After making sure her commandos were in place, Aria pulled up some security cameras on her omni-tool to show an empty alley with a tiled floor. We went through the ceiling, the door fitting in perfectly with the tiles. Around the corner was our target.

Together we stepped out of the alley. We walked towards the patio, I made eye contact with a muscular asari, her eyes flashing in the direction of the turian. We were in full armor, and we were all looking directly at him. He was chatting with a batarian at his table. We got to about a metre outside the commando perimeter when I saw him tense. He could see us from his peripheral. I coughed.

In a flash, I was on him. Anulla was on top of the batarian. To my left, I knew that Aria had gone after another turian who was clearly a guard. All around me the light was blue-purple from the dome barrier the commandos were holding. With one biotic-fuelled hit, the turian was dead. I moved on to the next guard. It was easy to tell who to go after since they were already shooting at us.

The civilians who had been inside the dome when we went in were screaming and running for the barriers. "Let them out!" I shouted to the nearest commando. She glanced at Aria but seemed to acknowledge my leadership, and let the barrier drop in her section for a couple humans and a salarian. My next target was on his back, and I was about to take him out when he started… convulsing. Right as I figured out what was happening his veins started popping out of his arms, his skull split. I took him out before His transformation was complete, but when I stood again there were already two adjucants inside the barrier. Aria saw them- and froze. It was just long enough for an adjucant to lunge at her.

"Anulla!" she turned and started shooting it while I charged forward, knocking it into the barrier. I used nova, taking down my own barriers, and Aria finished it off with a shotgun.

While this was happening I saw and adjucant throw a human across our dome. He fell with a disgusting crunch, but got up and hobbled over to the asari who was letting civilians through.

I was distracted by another adjucant coming my way- I couldn't use shockwave since we were in such close quarters, so instead I ran straight for it and jumped, hitting nova on my way down. I shot it with incendiary rounds and Anulla warped it into oblivion. I saw the human right on the other side of the barrier from where I was standing, throwing up. His arms was covered in… blood probably? Human blood is red, I know that much, but with the distortion of the barrier it was hard to tell. It looked black to me. He looked in my direction and I saw his eyes were completely black. Something like tentacles were falling out of his mouth and he was… growing.

"Damn!"…or maybe not! A shot rang out and the monster took a step back. The next shot was concussive, followed by an extremely precise proximity mine. _Hailey and Kaz!_

But the thing didn't stop. It was different than the other adjucants I'd seen, retaining more human features, and it went straight for one of the commandos.

Who then started to transform as well.

 _Damn._


	7. Second Wind

Chapter 7. Lockdown

 _"Fucking abort!"_

Aria and Anulla didn't need to be told twice. I made for the alley that we'd come from, but an adjucant blocked our path. We ducked into a building and took the elevator to the top floor.

Aria was immediately on her com, yelling at someone about activating lockdown for this level. I didn't even know that was possible. That's when Kaz called.

"Archangel we've lost visual. Where are you guys?"

I did a quick search on my omni-tool, "sending you our coordinates now. We're headed for the top floor of some building. Where are you?"

He gave a heavy sigh and said "about three blocks away from your location. Should we try to meet you?"

"…no. We'll come to you. There are more of us so we'll have a better chance fighting off any adjucants we run into. If we head to your location you guys can even provide cover fire."

"That's a negative, Ash. Our location's been compromised. Hayley's barricading the door right now. We're on the third floor of an apartment complex. Think we can get make it out through the balcony though."

I turned to Aria, who was now listening intently. "Okay, cards on the table. Two of my team are here now. Where should we meet them?"

She scowled but didn't look surprised as she pulled up a map of the level on her omni. "I told my commandos to meet here if shit went sideways," pointing to a warehouse about five blocks away, "Kaz I'm sending you the coordinates now. See you soon."

"Aria I know you-" she shook her head and said seriously, "we've got bigger problems, Ash."

She looked at Anulla, who had removed her gloves and was applying bandages to her right hand and forearm. Extending up to the elbow I could see her veins were starting to run black.

"Here, let me do that," I said, and she extended her arm forward towards me. She grinned and said, " _My hero_."

That's when, without warning, the orange blade of Aria's omni came down and cut Anulla's arm clean off at the elbow.

 _"What the FUCK?"_ she screamed as the elevator doors opened. I stood in shock, Anulla's blood all over my hands. _"Oh my FUCKING Goddess you BITCH!"_ she lunged at Aria and I held her back.

"Would you rather be an adjucant, you ungrateful little brat?" Aria turned to me, "THIS is why I only wanted you. Less talented squad members just cause collateral." "Would you just fucking explain yourself, _please_?" I shout/asked, and walked Anulla to the nearest chair. We seemed to be in an office building. Her severed forearm was leaking blood and black fluid all over the elevator floor. I found a first aid kit on the wall and started to bandage the arm, while simultaneously trying to keep Anulla seated.

"I'm sorry, did we not just see the same thing? Civilians and commandos turning into adjucants? Your friend obviously got serum or virus or whatever the fuck it is that turns people into adjucants in a cut on her arm. If we're lucky I stopped it before it spread." She took a step towards us, and Anulla tried to lunge in response. My hand was on her shoulder so I shoved her back down and she swore. Aria raised an eyebrow (figment of speech), "I still want to keep an eye on her, though."

"Anulla, Anulla _look at me_." She turned away from her death gaze at Aria and looked me in the eyes. "Look, this is hard but… she's right, okay? She's right…"

She seemed to calm down so I relaxed my hold. She stopped glaring at Aria and just stared at the floor, "it fucking _hurts_ , Ash."

Aria's omni beeped and she went into the next room to take a call.

I finished wrapping the stump, "yeah I know. Listen, Kaz will be able to do a better job when we meet up with him. In the meantime just try to calm down, okay? You've gotta relax until you stop losing blood." She was already a few shades lighter. "Look, it's going to be fine. I know someone… she lost both her legs in the war. Nowadays she runs faster than me, alright?" I didn't add the fact that this was my mother, who single-handedly killed every Reaper in the galaxy. I tried to smile, but I'm pretty sure it didn't work.

"I can't afford that cloning shit. Do you know how fucking _long_ asari live, Ash? I'm gonna be like this _forever._ "

Aria came back in before I could respond. "I told my people we'd be there in a few hours. All homes are on lockdown, and we've identified 12 individual adjucants thus far." I had to admire her efficiency. Kal's amazing, but imagine what I could do with a whole _team_ of Kal'Zoras… "A few hours? No, no." Anulla stood up, "by then Goddess-knows how many …things'll be out there. I'm ready to go now." She took a step and lost her balance, I managed to catch her as she stumbled.

"Anulla, we're not going anywhere without you up to full strength. You need to rest." She started to protest and I said, "That's a damned _order_ , Verges."

The formality of her last name and the firmness in my voice seemed to get the message across. "There's a sofa in the next room, we can put her there until she's stronger."

I helped her walk to the couch and she lay down. Aria found a mini fridge and gave her someone's old lunch, and tossed me a dextro protein bar. Anulla ate it in 5 seconds flat, and I was glad to see her skin regaining its natural blue-purple. I stayed with her until she fell asleep on the couch, then went to meet Aria in the next room. She was sitting cross-legged on someone's desk, and I could see she'd knocked all their crap onto the floor. I bent over and started picking it up.

"Come on Aria, this is just someone's job."

She narrowed her eyes, "'someone's job' is bribing Alliance patrols and covering-up slaver hits." She handed me a tablet that she hadn't knocked to the floor, it had a table with numbers and dates, including "imports" and "exports" from colonies in the Alliance systems that I knew had been hit recently by slavers. The numbers matched up to what Varna had dug up in her own investigations. I dropped the tablet and leaned on the desk.

"Look… _never_ tell Anulla I said this, but I would have done the same thing. You probably saved her life, so… thanks."

She looked at me sternly, "you shouldn't have brought her in the first place. And you brought your people to tail us without my knowing. That's not how I conduct my business."

"Aria, I've never met you before. I don't know you or your commandos and I've got no reason to trust you. Are you telling me you wouldn't have brought back-up?"

"I wouldn't have done it in secret."

 _I really can't win here_. "You'd rather I go against your orders openly? There was no way I was going into this without back-up. Besides, if it weren't for my sniper and explosives guy we might still be down there."

"And now we're stuck up here, 16 floors up and 3 dozen adjucants between us and the safehouse, and your friend might die on a couch in an office building."

That hit me hard. It finally dawned on me how stupid I'd been. I've been on this satellite a few months and think I can make the rules? The truth was, Aria friggin' T'Loak had reached out to me, and I'd fucked it up. Not only that, but I put my own people in danger to ensure my own safety. Not even the _real_ Archangel was stupid enough to fuck with Aria.

"…I'm gonna look around for some medigel."

After a quick scan around the room, I was grateful to see there weren't any first aid stations. I took the stairs down a floor, and made straight for a window. I leaned against it and tried to breathe, and after a minute decided just to sit down and lean my face on the cool glass. I hadn't panicked like this since the first time I'd gotten Kal in danger.

Six months ago, I'd only been on Omega a few weeks. It was just me, Anulla, Jason, and sometimes Shona (when she wasn't busy, or if Anulla really begged). We were holed up in an apartment on level 26, and mostly waited around for Jason to pick up on Blue Suns activity. About a quarter of his leads were false alarms, and the gigs we did stop (slaver meetings, civilian extortion) resulted in no cash for us. I only had some credit chits I'd taken from Earth, afraid that if I withdrew anything my parents would find me instantly.

Back then, we didn't really have a designated leader. There weren't really enough of us to need it- we could generally reach some sort of consensus with a 20 minute conversation. By "we" I basically mean me and Jason, since Shona wasn't really a part of the "team" and Anulla was good as long as she was able to destroy something- or someone. With her commando experience, and my Anderson Academy training, we thought we were unstoppable. Looking back, I can see how reckless I was. I focussed more on Jack's offensive training while exercising none of the caution that would have kept me safe. I saw the injuries that I got during that time as marks of battle, instead of the preventable mistakes that they were.

This one time though, we couldn't reach a consensus. We had evidence that some Neo-Cerberus militia guys were seizing a residential neighbourhood and kicking out or killing non-humans. I wanted to go in and kill them all, Jason (rightly) thought they would be too much, and Anulla couldn't decide. Frustrated by our inaction, I left for a walk. I was angry at Jason, so I purposely took a path that wasn't marked on "safe" map, aka, a path that could possibly have security cameras or mercenary patrols.

It took me about 20 minutes to realise I had a tail. I went through markets, an office building that had 3 entrances, and a mall before I was satisfied they were gone, and had my hand on my com to ask Jason to watch my back when I turned and looked right at Kal. We'd never met in person before, but were lifelong friends via holos. Aunt Tali visited Earth when the relays first re-opened, but Kal had had exams for his agriculture program on Rannoch. I mostly knew him without the mask, but when he called right after working in the fields or testing soil samples he'd have his enviro suit on, and I recognised the patterns right away.

"Took you long enough. Come on Ashley, we've got to get back to your base. Your security systems are crap."

Turns out, he'd been able to track my messages with him, despite Jason's best scattering attempts. It had taken him three days, but he knew I was on Omega. He'd been on Palavan for his pilgrimage, bored out of his mind learning the best conditions to grow certain dextro crops. He found out where I was, respectfully left his hosts, and caught a ship to Omega.

Kal joining our group was a huge milestone for us. He introduced us to Kaz, and we went from calling ourselves "Archangel" to everybody calling _me_ "Archangel." He beefed the tech aspects of our security system and became fast friends with Jason. Then we started gaining notoriety and volunteers, and the rest is history.

It took me months to stop being anxious about him though- he never struck me as a fighter. I mistook my own recklessness for what Omega was actually like, and I was convinced I'd get him hurt. If that happened, I was pretty sure I'd be hunted down by SPECTREs and murdered before my parents even figured out I was Archangel.

When Kal finally convinced me to take him in the field, I saw myself more as his bodyguard than anything else. Jason had found the floorplan of an active Eclipse hideout. We'd carefully worked out the guard circulations, and found a time when only two mercs were patrolling the area near the terminal we wanted to hit. We found their names, ranks, and histories. One was a commando, a veteran from the Reaper War who'd escaped a court marshal after it was discovered she'd been feeding intel to Cerberus. Another was a good old-fashioned slaver.

It was the first ever mission of Kal'Zora and Ashley Shepard-Vakarian, and I had to admit I was stoked. We made it in through a back entrance, hacking the door and heading in. As Kal made his way to the terminal I found the ex-commando and took her out from behind. It was messy- it took me more than a minute to snap her neck. She was probably the first person I ever killed without a weapon (or biotics). I joined Kal, who was copying what we needed off the terminal, and kept a lookout for the slaver. I started to line up the shot, when I realised the person I saw was a batarian, not a turian like I expected.

Then I saw the turian over by the commando's body. And two more asari. And three humans. It took them about three seconds to figure out where we were and start making their way towards us. Shots and biotic blasts hit the low wall in front of us, and I remember telling Kal to stop taking the data. I remember being so, so worried that he would die, and I'd have to tell my mom or his mom. _They never should have let me lead, why did I think I could be a better Archangel than my own dad?_ "I've got it already!" he said, and deployed an attack drone which exploded and took out two humans. I almost kissed him, but opted instead to take out the turian with my sniper rifle. Once we thinned the herd I went forward with a biotic charge while Kal provided cover fire.

When we brought the data back to Jason, I'd never been so proud. I bought us all drinks that night, and remember it as one of the most successful of our early missions.

Back to reality, my breathing was back to normal. My team is in danger- it's true, but they can handle themselves. I called Jason for a long-overdue briefing, and he said he'd been in contact with Hayley. I found some medigel in a first aid station on the wall and made my way back to Anulla, who was chatting with Shona on her own com. I tossed her the gel and let her talk to her girlfriend, who was probably freaking out. _Adjucants first, angry krogan later, Ash._ I walked over to Aria.

"Are you done pouting?" _How does she know_ everything _?_

"Aria. I owe you an apology for going against our deal. Moving forward, I want us to be open with each other."

She considered this. "Alright, Archangel. No more surprises from you, and I'll tell you anything you need to know on my end."

'Need to know' sounds a whole lot like 'whatever I feel like,' but I decided to take it. I owed her.

"Fair enough."

We went to check on Anulla, who was standing steadily. "Alright ladies, let's gear up and get out."

Jason told me that there were underground tunnels leading from our building to one two blocks away from the safehouse. We took the elevator, still full of Anulla's blood, and I packed up her arm in a bag. I highly doubted we could save it, but it seemed worth a shot.

As the elevator slowed, I turned and faced them. "We're a team now. Us three. We're the only ones who can stop a full-scale adjucant invasion. You guys thought you were done with Cerberus when the war ended, and here they are, fucking with civilians again. _They_ think that they're the master race. _They_ think they can just come in and kill everyone on the most diverse station in the galaxy. They know that Earth will never be for just humans before, so they're trying to make some kind of fucking statement by taking Omega. We're not going to let that happen. We kicked _ass_ out there, and we're gonna fight just like that until every one of these adjucants and the people who let them loose are dead. It's going to be beautiful, and I can't fucking wait."

Aria was smiling… _grinning._ Anulla gave me a half hug and said "I'm with you, Ash. Let's go be big goddamn heroes."

The elevator doors opened, and we went into the tunnel.


End file.
